Professor claims Mini Holland scheme could be terrorist target

fatbeggaronabike wrote:

After I finished laughing at the absurd lengths some silly people will go to, I thought about the pipes running underneath the cycle path and the ensuing chaos everytime there's a suspected leak.

I hope the local cycle campaigners ask/insist that Thames water put them under the footpath.

Boris would sell that as 'integrated bike-washing services for the hard working people of Enfield'.

felixcat wrote:

In some areas of London bikes are apparently seen as potential bombs. They have been moved from railings (having the lock cut) and stored in police station basements!

There is much about this on John Adams's website.

http://www.john-adams.co.uk/2008/07/28/bicycle-bombs-a-threat-to-westminster/

Is there something about bikes which triggers irrational phobias?

 

 

Signs appeared on the Centre in Bristol just before Remembrance Sunday saying bikes could not be locked to railings or to the bike stands or else they would be removed. Presumably for that very reason.

brooksby wrote:

felixcat wrote:

In some areas of London bikes are apparently seen as potential bombs. They have been moved from railings (having the lock cut) and stored in police station basements!

There is much about this on John Adams's website.

http://www.john-adams.co.uk/2008/07/28/bicycle-bombs-a-threat-to-westminster/

Is there something about bikes which triggers irrational phobias?

 

 

Signs appeared on the Centre in Bristol just before Remembrance Sunday saying bikes could not be locked to railings or to the bike stands or else they would be removed. Presumably for that very reason.

Actually, if you read Graham Greene at all you might remember that bicycle bombs do figure in one of his books, The Quiet American.

Bicycle bombs were also used by the IRA.

Otherwise though the complainant sounds bonkers.

OldRidgeback wrote:

 

 

Actually, if you read Graham Greene at all you might remember that bicycle bombs do figure in one of his books, The Quiet American.

Bicycle bombs were also used by the IRA.

Otherwise though the complainant sounds bonkers.

Adams goes to some length to try to find any example of a bicycle bomb, as opposed to a bomb on a bag on a bike. He asks questions on a military forum. He can find no example of a bike bomb.

The bikes removed from railings were bikes without luggage, where the only place a bomb could be would be inside the frame. He does find one example, but the only result of this one was a flying saddle!

Take a look at his website, to which I gave a link.

I know Greene's work well. The bomb you refer to was on a bike, not in a bike. Removing naked bikes from railings is irrational. Putting them in the police station is just crazy, if you really fear they are explosive.

felixcat wrote:

OldRidgeback wrote:

 

 

 

Actually, if you read Graham Greene at all you might remember that bicycle bombs do figure in one of his books, The Quiet American.

Bicycle bombs were also used by the IRA.

Otherwise though the complainant sounds bonkers.

 

Adams goes to some length to try to find any example of a bicycle bomb, as opposed to a bomb on a bag on a bike. He asks questions on a military forum. He can find no example of a bike bomb.

The bikes removed from railings were bikes without luggage, where the only place a bomb could be would be inside the frame. He does find one example, but the only result of this one was a flying saddle!

Take a look at his website, to which I gave a link.

I know Greene's work well. The bomb you refer to was on a bike, not in a bike. Removing naked bikes from railings is irrational. Putting them in the police station is just crazy, if you really fear they are explosive.

 

Err, what link? Yep, in the Greene novel the bombs were fitted inside bicycle pumps. These were placed on bicycles and then cycled into place.

In the early 1990s the IRA used a small bomb attached to a bicycle in Brighton. As I recall, no one was hurt and there was only a small amount of damage.

But yes, removing bicycles from railings on the basis that they may contain some kind of device and then storing them inside police stations makes no sense whatsoever.

To go back to the article, the complainant does come across as a bit of a nutter. The MP puts it all neatly in context: Kingston and Surbiton Conservative MP James Berry said: “I would have thought the risk of terrorism in Kingston is highly unlikely, particularly on a cycle path.”

OldRidgeback wrote:

 

Err, what link? Yep, in the Greene novel the bombs were fitted inside bicycle pumps. These were placed on bicycles and then cycled into place.

In the early 1990s the IRA used a small bomb attached to a bicycle in Brighton. As I recall, no one was hurt and there was only a small amount of damage.

 

If you go back up this discussion you will find a link.

I'm glad you have come to agree with my point.  Bare bikes are no threat, and cutting their lock to remove them from the railings is a weird sort of paranoia.  No sane cyclist leaves a bike with pump or bags in a public place.

felixcat wrote:

OldRidgeback wrote:

 

Err, what link? Yep, in the Greene novel the bombs were fitted inside bicycle pumps. These were placed on bicycles and then cycled into place.

 

In the early 1990s the IRA used a small bomb attached to a bicycle in Brighton. As I recall, no one was hurt and there was only a small amount of damage.

 

 

 

If you go back up this discussion you will find a link.

I'm glad you have come to agree with my point.  Bare bikes are no threat, and cutting their lock to remove them from the railings is a weird sort of paranoia.  No sane cyclist leaves a bike with pump or bags in a public place.

I didn't come to agree with your point as such. A bomb can be placed in pretty much anything tubular. Just because no one has used the frame of a bicycle so far to do this, it doesn't mean it couldn't happen. Granted, the quantities involved would be comparatively small but then it would in theory be a fairly easy way to transport such a device undetected.

The IRA did use a bicycle and it wouldn't have been so hard for them to place the device inside the frame tubing with the techniques they already used. In the dark days of the Vietnam War, the Viet Cong became adept at placing devices that seemed totally innocuous but were in fact quite deadly and many GIs were killed or maimed as a result.

I suppose you could argue that bicycles are less suspicious than cars in this respect because they're so much smaller and haven't been used often for such devices. I expect those in the security services who advised on the decision about not allowing bicycles to be locked up are highly aware of the IRA's record on placing devices, but the ordinary cops on the beat probably don't quite understand which is why seized bicycles end up in police storage.

dafyddp wrote:

Reminds me of the stuffy naval officer, Sir Hugh Mahargg on Brass Eye a few years ago, explaining why the Royal Navy was no place for gay men:

"Homosexuals can't swim, they attract enemy radar, they attract sharks, they insist on being placed at "the captain's table", they get up late, they nudge people whilst they're shooting. They muck about. Imagine... the fear... of knowing you have a gay man on board a boat, when you retire at night you think to yourself "God... will I wake up and find everybody dead?" You can't run a ship like that."

Are you suggesting that perhaps the cycle lane would attract... bad cyclists?  Not the good cyclists, the ones who win Olympic medals, yellow jerseys and that?  But bad cyclists, the ones who ride on pavements and run red lights and don't pay road tax?

Gizmo_ wrote:

Are you suggesting that perhaps the cycle lane would attract... bad cyclists?  Not the good cyclists, the ones who win Olympic medals, yellow jerseys and that?  But bad cyclists, the ones who ride on pavements and run red lights and don't pay road tax?

[/quote]

Ha! Ha!

I'm not, but it sounds like Professor Addled-Brain is trying to suggest you never know what these cyclist types might have strapped under their hi-viz vests. He once saw a cyclist give the finger to a local bobby - what more proof do you need that they're all a bunch of tree-hugging proto-anarchists, eh?

FluffyKittenofTindalos wrote:

Well, cars are a fairly obvious weapon for terrorists (they use them frequently as both as weapons and bomb-carriers).  

I like your thinking, FluffyKittneofTindalos. <Make notes on cuff of sleeve...>